Maths Locke

Fantastic bit of work. Great response to *that* paper about women scientists mostly being omitted from exam specs. (Also solving my 'can you provide a house quiz from the science team?' headache)

Happily reporting I got to sleep in as long as I wanted today. The other half fed the cats. The only cat wake-up I got was the dumb one checking I was ok with a little purring before leaving me to sleep.

Proper half termy day: hit IKEA at opening for a full English and then bought what I needed to start fixing up the reading room (spare room that I am making a cozy calm reading room when not in use by guests)

The cats knew today was a Monday/not weekend. They came together to wake me when my work alarm would go off. Last two days it was just one of them and he gave up and let me lie in after a bit. Today they were together and determined. And cute.

Big appreciation for the other half who ordered me a black forest hot chocolate and a chocolate orange muffin while I typed up my reading notes so I can sit down and do a synthesis session (get out my felt tip pens!)

What advice would you give to someone hoping to secure their next role in SLT? Would any of these give them a better chance - NPQSL or Masters in education leadership?

Created this End of Unit revision site for Y7 last week and was very impressed with the outcome. I think this is a use of AI that I'll keep using. It allows students to review their learning and build confidence sites.google.com/rodingvalley... #MathsToday

Lovely cold run this morning. Now a day to read books indoors.

Buying myself my fancy new TWSBI pen and ink and other various stationary things is such a boost for my EdD productivity. I may have said this before. The only way to "play with my new toys" is to actually do some research and writing. Or else they just sit and gather dust.

So many places for my cat to sit while I do journal reading. So why must he sit in the one place that was really comfortable for resting my notebook and making notes? Did I mention he's wet? Yeah, he's also wet from the rain. At least he's cute.

Early years educators: join Dr Lucy Rycroft-Smith to hear how research-informed songs can support maths for 3 to 6 year olds. 🔢🎶 📅 Tuesday 3rd November 2026 🕓 4pm - 5pm GMT Members can sign up to this session free: https://chartered.pulse.ly/2agwb7v7gg

Every so often I decide I want to map out a few core representations and then plop them into the SoL and then spend dept time looking at one representation and where it goes. Then I realise that I don't have time. I should make the time really.

1 hour ago: "I'll sit at the computer and play some video games" Now: *been researching self determination theory for 50 minutes* I think this is what they mean when they say you have to love your subject to do a doctorate.

Topic revision mats to easily identify the gaps and direct revision. These are available for lots of topics at different levels. All free at resources.themathshabit.co.uk Thanks for spotting the website typo Michelle @mideco-2883.bsky.social

Teaching is a series of sprints. Towards the end of each half term all my good habits go away but I've managed to get decent mechanisms for picking them back up again in between half terms.

The sheer feeling of limitless power brought about by a freshly loaded label maker is unmatched

In the distant past, before becoming a secondary maths teacher, I was a primary school teacher. I have taken what I learnt then to design these highly scaffolded worksheets which help all students to access the KS3 curriculum. All resources are free resources.themathshabit.co.uk

I've now added questions, solutions and videos for Year 1 mechanics to my site to add to the statistics already there. All 98 exam style questions are original but obviously based on past exam questions. www.1stclassmaths.com/alevelrevision

Murder in a Small Town is such a boring crime show that I got distracted and started doing research into SDT despite my desire to just hunker down into a cosy day. At least I get to use my fancy TWSBI and bilberry ink :)

Having woken up about 3 hours later than my normal, I think I actually just need a day of reading and doing nothing much rather than EdD.

Looking for some help from the blog readers here! Do you know of any blogs that compare evidence use in education and medicine?

Tomorrow I'm spending the day reading about Self Determination Theory for my EdD. Nice day of getting my head around something that I have only a practical but not theoretical understanding of.

I had a dream that I changed all the tutor time maths activities to be food (pizza mostly) related. Upon waking, while it would be a lot of work, it might actually be a good idea. Maybe not all, but at least the "which pizza is best value" one.

So I ranted to my LM today and gave myself the job of KS3 progress identification across the curriculum. Literally gave it to myself. She checked with me but I said I really wanted to do it. I mean, I do. But also why can't I learn to just be happy doing my own job.

For those who have been using my guides on downloading Year 6 SATs data in July for their Year 7 intake in September: Stage 2 is about to begin Getting Question Level Analysis for your intake so you can look at either individual needs or cohort needs But... not yet

Made the English and History yr 11 trackers. Then made them talk to each other so you can see discrepancies. Then made a WarBoard English/maths crossover tracker. So much easier when everything links to UPNs. And yes, I realise I basically made a DIY MIS in excel.

I'm looking forward to spending much of today making trackers for other subjects. I realised that if I made them, I could make them all talk to each other so we could easily cross reference e.g. history and English grades for discrepancies. Also KS3 needs doing. Much fun 😊

In #MathsToday I went slightly mad and described quadratics that don't equal zero as "having no rizz". At least they remembered it? Also started chanting frequency polygon (midpoint, frequency). Yr 11 mocks frying my brain.

In #MathsToday I showed my team that one could divide fractions using common denominators. One of those things you never think about until you try it.

Science were very appreciative of the muffins. An AP called it wellbeing in the workplace. I feel valued. Next time I plan to try cherry Bakewell muffins.

Baking white chocolate raspberry muffins for department time Monday because the science department are joining us for a bit and I want to be a good host. Is this what they mean by doing work on the weekend?

The joy my label maker brings me and my students is immense. Personalised stickers. Also the one time I made a sticker that said "no calculators" for the student who forgot it was non calc Friday.

In #MathsToday I did mock prep with yr 11. A booklet of xover questions with three on each topic and ms at the back. They worked in pairs and groups. I only intervened when there was a whole class blockage. Lovely buzz on the room.

If I redesigned OfSTED, I'd make the inspections 3 times a year, one day each time but change day and each inspection looks closely at a few not all of the things. That way there's a lot less pressure on each inspection.

In #MathsToday I did my weekly yr 12 exam quiz. The questions were hard this time, using GCSE knowledge but at a level level with a level content on top. I told them I'd stopped going easy on them now they'd settled in. Next week we re do those questions and they WILL get 100%.

Every time I think I've "completed" HoD and now just need to improve the current status, I find a new Thing that is a shift that will need planning but massively improve things.

Today we have published the first edition of our new publication, In Praxis, in collaboration with Twinkl. It focuses on SEND and Inclusion and will help schools put evidence-informed inclusive practice into action. Read In Praxis here: https://chartered.pulse.ly/hx54l6k55o

I have a stitch and bitch on Google meet now and I've just discovered all the effects. My friends have not joined the call yet. Excited for their reactions to cat with human mouth.

Still feeling nervous energy after department review day. It was very helpful and pointed out how strong we've become and also areas that I'd become blind to that we need to work on. My, it was nerve wracking though.

Anyone got any "best practice" on oracy and writing in secondary maths?

In #MathsToday yr 10 did area of parallelograms and triangles. I started with a diagram with a "trap" side and made the first step to explicitly identify and discard the trap side. Significantly reduced issues of multiplying wrong numbers because they had it as part of the process.

Because Pearson Edexcel Maths STILL isn't on Bluesky: qualifications.pearson.com/en/news-poli...

Some best-buy questions coming up for Year 8 next week. #ukmathsteachers #mathsteachers #mathstoday

In #MathsToday yr 10 learned about finding 5% of amounts. Slowly slowly. Their weak numeracy makes it harder but we are getting there. One student can half things really well now, thanks to the springboard 7 materials so I need to use them more!

I’ve now read all of Pearsons maths GCSE examiners reports … summaries for each can be found here … AQAs will go up on the weekend. If anyone would like to send me @OCR_Maths (I’ve had no response to my email!) I’ll read that sh1t to for ya 🤣 justmaths.co.uk/index-i-read...

Arrived home to the cat throwing up but also my aunt sent me a bottle of hotel chocolat espresso martini. Overall a win?